Latinx Parents’ Literacy Practices and Concientización in Petitioning Their Local School Board Regarding Funding Priorities

A case study of a Latinx parent-school engagement program is presented illustrating how immigrant parents became collective political actors providing input into their California school district’s formulation of its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP was part of newly adopted statewide Local Control Funding Formula policy providing supplemental funding to schools in support of services needed by students who were identified as low-income, English Language Learners (ELLs), and foster-care. The study investigated how Latinx parents developed a face-to-face understanding of the LCAP policy and planning process, and their rights and collective power as advocates for their children’s education. Focused attention is given to one parent group advocating for summer academic programs and how parents negotiated rhetorical and linguistic formulation of arguments in their letter petition to the local school board. In so doing, parents drew on their cultural funds of knowledge and developed sensitivity to the communicative practices of school boards, and to the need of parents to present their voice and stances persuasively and assertively indicative of their rights as community members. The study helps ground theories of political action in the face-to-face world of parent engagement programs.